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MobiDataLab submits a report on the Architecture of its Transport Cloud Architecture
End of January 2023, after 2 years of fruitful activity, the MobiDataLab partners have submitted the second version of their Transport Cloud Architecture Dossier. This Dossier describes the components and architecture of the Transport Cloud. It provides the design principles and technical guidelines to make sure the platform developed is aligned with the requirements of the stakeholders (i.e., authorities, operators, MaaS companies, and developers).
It comes one year after the first submitted iteration of the dossier, which was a living document, with regular updates concerning significant changes in design and functionality. The first iteration was based on the preliminary analysis of the use cases provided in the deliverable “D2.9: Use cases definition (v1)” as well as on the “D2.6 : Report on enabling technologies for Transport Cloud“, covering the basic functional and non-functional expectations from the platform in order for the report to conform to the requirements of those use cases. This version specifies how the various non-functional, functional, and general requirements are implemented, and provides an overview on the technologies that have been selected for the implementation of the Transport Cloud Architecture.
Architectural components and functionalities
After an overview of the platform and its main actors, the second architecture dossier version directly enters in the information flows and related architectural components. These components are essential to satisfy or realise the functional, non-functional, and generic requirements (which are reported further in the dossier, as opposed to the first version).
They cover the following functionalities:
- identity management
- discovery, exploration, and research of data available in the Transport Cloud
- access to services that provide relevant functionality for mobility challenges, e.g., journey planners, ticketing services, mobility data visualization, gazetteer services, routing services or further location-based services
- user guidance to gathered data content through a metadata catalogue
- data interoperability services
- data enrichment processors
- data anonymization and privacy protection
Evolution of requirements
The non-functional and functional requirements of the platform are investigated in a further step than in the first version: an implementation description is provided for each one of them.
In the first architecture dossier iteration, a set of requirements had been defined, based on the use cases set in the Use Cases deliverable D2.9 in October 2021. For each of these requirements, a description of the challenge to overcome was proposed, with an objective definition for the Transport Cloud functionality. In this second iteration, after the objective definition, an explanation is added on how the consortium has implemented this functionality in the Transport Cloud development. The obstacles and solutions are briefly presented with the resulting implementation.
Selected technologies
The technologies exploited for the implementation of the MobiDataLab components are presented in the second dossier version. A detailed description of each technological solution, and the reasons why they have been selected to implement the components of the Transport Cloud architecture, are detailed in the subsections. The solutions included cover API gateways, data persistences, databases, knowledge graphs, metadat catalogues, anonymisation, and identity management.
Update on related initiatives
Finally, in the course and at the end of the Transport Cloud architecture presentation, MobiDataLab partners provide information on relevant external initiatives supporting the platform development.
The INSPIRE initiative is quoted to give an example of standard formats and interfaces for data access and services, while several technological solutions and their providers are presented and described. The GAIA-X project is mentioned as the most relevant European initiative to the MobiDataLab project, as the former considers many aspects that are key to the realisation of the Transport Cloud.
For further details, read the deliverable on our publication section!
AND to test the MobiDataLab Transport Cloud use, join our virtual and living labs: more info soon…